If religion did not speak to the deepest sighs and longings of the human heart then it would be as well not to speak at all. Of these sighs few are more profound than those offered up for the death of one we love. My father, William Hepburn, died earlier this year and, since by tradition Catholics devote the month of November in particular to remembering our dead, the forthcoming November becomes a special one for me. It is one of the examples in Catholic life where theological truths and natural human emotions combine in such a way as to produce the inner peace we all desire and the calm acceptance that what has happened has happened.
It is no coincidence that this time precedes Advent, a liturgical season that prepares believers for light to appear in the midst of darkness. We move from the De Profundis of Psalm 129, "Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord", to the anticipation of Isaiah 9, "The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen".
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